


and in the morning you'll be stranded in love (it goes around and around)

by brujay



Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: M/M, Panic Attacks, Some Humor, Swearing, Time Loop, a bit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 01:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11499156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brujay/pseuds/brujay
Summary: “Have you seen Groundhog Day?”Kyle took a moment before replying. “Ihave… what exactly are you trying to say, here?”Dan sighed again. “I think I’m living it.”Dan gets trapped in a time loop, and he is not having a good time.





	and in the morning you'll be stranded in love (it goes around and around)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this 95% written for a while and got the urge to finish it, coincidentally a couple of days before the 14th! [killeleanor](http://archiveofourown.org/users/killeleanor) was kind enough to proofread it for me yesterday, and now here it is.
> 
> Did you know Groundhog Day is Feb 2nd? Because that definitely isn't something that only occurred to me halfway through writing this... Fate!
> 
> I'm [thebadrobin](http://thebadrobin.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, fic title from Warning Mark by Empires.
> 
> hbd to Dan and happy Bastille Day to everyone else!

_“[... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”](https://youtu.be/EWbY24C7u1M?t=1m9s)_

Dan awoke to soft strains of music drifting in from the radio in the other room. It was some old French song he’d heard before but didn’t know well enough to identify, and the vague familiarity of it comforted him as he luxuriated in the warmth of his bunk.

Not bothering to open his eyes, he shifted onto his side, resettling himself with a sigh. Since they had a full day of promotion scheduled before their Paris gig – February 2nd, he reminded himself, going through his mental calendar of all their gigs for this leg of the tour – they’d been driving overnight. It wasn’t Dan’s favourite way to travel, since waking up in a different country always disoriented him and the hum of the engine disrupted his sleep, but it had to be done, and at least the stillness he was currently enjoying meant that they’d arrived already. Absently, he wondered how much time he had left to sleep before his alarm would go off.

He felt around for his phone next to him but came up with nothing. Frustrated, he blinked open his eyes, immediately jumping backwards with a shriek and hitting his head against the wall behind him - hard!

Looming over him, only a few inches away from his face, was Kyle, who burst into laughter at Dan’s reaction.

“The look on your face!” he chuckled. He leant back on his haunches, moving out of Dan’s space.

Dan propped himself up on an elbow, rubbing at the sore spot on the back of his head. Yeah, that was going to bruise. “I – what? What are you even–?”

“Wake-up call,” Kyle explained. “Boom, you’re woken up – _and_ you’re welcome.”

Dan frowned at him.

“Well, don’t just sit about! Gonna be a busy day and you’ve already slept in a lot.”

Reaching again for his phone and finding it on the floor, Dan checked the time and cursed. “Shit, my alarm didn’t go off!”

No time for a shower, then. He rolled out of bed and grabbed for a change of clothes, stripping off his sleep shirt without a second thought for Kyle still crouched next to the bunk.

“Whoa, okay!” he said, standing up. He averted his eyes politely. “There’s coffee when you’re ready, which. I am going to get a cup of now. Alright.”

Once fully dressed, Dan joined the others in the lounge and reached for the cup of coffee waiting for him on the counter. Lethargic and wary of the fact that he was making everyone late, he unthinkingly took a long swallow in an attempt to wake himself up a bit more, instantly regretting it as he felt it scald his tongue and throat. “Fuck,” he said, wincing and flexing his fingers.

To make matters worse, in readjusting his grip on the mug’s handle, he somehow caused it to detach from the mug itself, sending it smashing down onto the counter and splashing him with a spray of hot coffee and shards of ceramic which clattered onto the floor around him. His t-shirt was soaked and he plucked at it to see the skin beneath already turning pink from the heat.

There was a collective cheer from everyone gathered in the lounge.

From his place rinsing a bowl at the sink, Kyle spun around and stepped closer, helping to lift the soaked t-shirt over Dan’s head and apologising for not having used a newer mug, tutting at the pinkening of his skin. Dan felt his face flush to match under Kyle’s scrutiny, and the way he pressed the cool of his still wet hands against Dan’s skin to soothe the sting. All in all it was a bit of a disaster.

The others, who had witnessed all of this, only stared.

“It’s really not your day, is it?” Woody joked, not without sympathy.

Dan did his best to compose himself as he flipped him off.

 

* * *

 

Since they were already running late, Woody and Kyle decided to head over to the meeting point for their interview to stall for time, leaving Dan and Will behind while Dan tried to clean up and changed his clothes. He still reeked of coffee, but he consoled himself with the thought that at least tonight was a hotel night; they had the day off tomorrow to explore the city before they’d drive overnight to Madrid. Hotel nights meant he could shower for as long as he wanted, and be able to have a proper wash without knocking his limbs against the walls.

After he was done changing, they set off.

On the way, they bumped into a fan who had been milling about a few streets away from the venue and approached them to ask for selfies and have a chat.

“Isn’t Kyle with you?” she’d wondered, looking a bit put out.

Dan had flustered, the memory of hot coffee lighting up his skin, and hoped that his discomfort wasn’t too visible as he explained that the others weren’t with them.

It took a moment, but her frown eased and they ended up making pleasant conversation. She was there with her father, who had apparently driven her up all the way from Toulouse just for the gig.

“It’s a six hour long journey,” she was telling them, “so of course we’re staying over, but I’m paying for it all, and I’m treating my papa to a day of sightseeing tomorrow to make up for the hassle!”

She’d said he didn’t speak any English, so Dan drew on his memories of GCSE French and his attempts to pick it back up again over the years and turned to face the father.

“Tu es très gentil,” he offered. He reached out to shake the man’s hand. “Le sightseeing, c’est bon… j’ai, uh… j’ai envie de toi.”

The man blinked at him, his grip on Dan’s hand slackening, and Dan jumped as Will spat up some of his coffee next to him, choking through guffaws of sudden laughter. The fan had gone very red in the face and looked as though she was struggling not to join in with him.

“ _Dan_ !” Will reprimanded. Through peals of laughter, he tried to speak. “Il vou– hahahaha! Je pense que – oh my _god_ – ce qu’il voulait dire, c’est qu’il vous envie parce-qu'il aime faire du tourisme. Il est très désolé!” He patted Dan on the back, shoulders still shaking, and gave him a light shove to get him walking. “Come on Dan, we have somewhere to be. Can’t spend the whole day picking up men in the street!”

“Better luck next time!” said the fan cheerily and Dan only had a moment to feel puzzled at that before Will was shoving him more aggressively.

Dan waved distractedly over his shoulder as they set off. “What, what are you on about?” he said to Will. “What was all that about?”

Heaving an amused sigh, Will shook his head. “You grasped the man’s hand and were like ‘you’re very nice, I want to sleep with you’... I wouldn’t claim to speak for you, of course, but I feel like that’s not quite what you were going for.”

“Oh my God.” Dan covered his face with his hands. This day just kept getting worse and worse.

 

* * *

 

They did eventually reach the meeting place and joined Kyle and Woody, apologising to the interviewer who seemed a bit put out. She was gracious about it, but it made for an awkward interview.

There was also the issue that, while they’d been waiting for Dan and Will to show up, the interviewer had taken quite a shine to Kyle – something which hadn’t escaped Kyle’s notice – and was therefore directing most of the questions to him. Dan wouldn’t have minded someone else taking over, but watching them flirt while he could still feel Kyle’s hands on him from that morning made his skin prickle uncomfortably, and he felt on edge as it dragged on.

After a thankfully uneventful break for lunch, he fumbled his way through a radio appearance in a room so stiflingly hot that he had to take off his fogged-up glasses, which he promptly lost and spent five minutes searching for. He did manage to find them, though – with his foot. As he slid the snapped frames into his jacket pocket, he couldn’t really say he was all that surprised, given how the day had been going so far.

By this point, he had developed a tension headache which resulted in him snapping at Kyle, who for whatever reason was in an annoyingly hyper mood and was badgering him about what he had planned for their day off tomorrow, while mysteriously deflecting any questions Dan asked about Kyle’s own plans. Usually Dan would be willing to play along, but today he just couldn’t deal with it.

“Maybe if I could start the day over and have it not be shit, I’d be more enthusiastic about whatever it is you have planned for tomorrow,” he huffed, “but as it stands I don’t really give a fuck.” He knew as he said it that he was being harsh, but he was still irritated about the interview and couldn’t stop himself.

“Suit yourself,” was all Kyle said before walking ahead to chat with the crew. He went on to ignore Dan for the rest of the day, which made him feel even worse.

When it came time to play the gig, Dan was wary of speaking too much French in case he made another embarrassing mistake like the one he had that morning. He didn’t, but he was so distracted that he almost came in too late on Flaws and switched around a couple of the lines in Lethargy – the others definitely noticed but it didn’t throw anyone off their game too much.

Finally, when he was walking back from singing Two Evils, he stepped on some broken glass, a shard piercing the sole of his shoe and impaling his foot. He yelled a bit, thankfully away from the mic, and bent down to yank it out, managing to limp back to the stage and finish the gig. If he favoured his right foot and spent more time hopping than jumping during the last couple of songs, well, nobody seemed to really notice.

Kyle still wasn’t talking to him after the gig and Dan’s headache was bothering him despite him having tossed back a double dose of paracetamol and ibuprofen beforehand. Feeling thoroughly miserable, he begged off going out drinking with everyone else and instead headed straight to his hotel room, washed off in the shower and then collapsed into bed, eager to bring this hellish day to an end.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

Dan shifted in bed, wondering why a song from the ‘60s was getting so much airtime that he had heard it twice already since being in France. He opened his eyes and nearly jumped out of his skin for the second morning in a row as his eyes met Kyle’s.

“Jesus! Again?” At least his head had been cushioned by his pillow this time. And at least Kyle wasn't ignoring him anymore.

Kyle quirked an eyebrow at him. “Oi, this is a one-time deal. I’m your wake-up call, so consider yourself woken up.” He checked his phone, grimacing. “Uh, I have to say, I may not have been the best man for the job, so… hurry up? We’re late as it is.”

All at once, Dan realised that he was lying in his bunk, which struck him as odd when he distinctly remembered falling asleep at the hotel. Had someone carried him here?

“I thought… hotel?” he asked, brain still muddled from sleep.

“Hell yeah, it’s a hotel night tonight! Dibs on you for my roomie – please don’t make me share with Will again, the man is a mess.”

There was an irate yell from the other room.

Kyle lowered his voice. “He knows it’s true.” He stood up and headed to the door. “I’ll leave you to it. Made you some coffee by the way, it’s in the kitchen.”

Well, that was weird. Dan shook his head as if to clear it. Whatever, maybe he’d dreamt falling asleep in a nice bed for once in anticipation for tonight. Stranger things had happened on tour. He quickly got dressed and went through to the lounge, stopping short upon seeing the coffee that had been made for him.

It was just that that was definitely the mug he had broken yesterday morning.

“Um,” he said intelligently. “How did you get a replacement mug so fast?” Because that was the only explanation.

“What, _that_?” Woody shook his head. “I don’t even know how long we’ve had that, it’s ancient.”

Wary, Dan picked up the mug and cradled it between both hands, taking a tentative sip so as to avoid burning his mouth. He’d learnt his lesson yesterday. As he brought it down again, Dan watched with a sense of detached expectancy as the handle came away from the rest of the mug, but at least this time he was prepared and was able to catch it against his chest. The motion caused some of the hot coffee to splash onto the sensitive skin of his inner wrists, though, and he hissed.

Kyle was there in a flash, retrieving the mug from his awkward grip and setting it in the sink before taking Dan’s wrists in his hands. He rubbed his thumbs over them and Dan hoped Kyle didn’t notice the way his pulse kicked up at the contact.

“Sorry,” Kyle mumbled, bringing Dan’s wrists closer to his face to better inspect them. “Should have used a newer mug.”

His hands were cold and still wet from the sink.

Dan’s sudden laugh was tinged with hysteria. “Am I going mad? Didn’t this exact same thing happen yesterday?”

“We were in Antwerp yesterday and we all went out for breakfast,” Will supplied, “so… no?”

Someone’s phone lit up with a message on the countertop and a glance at it confirmed that it was indeed February 2nd, the day after their show in Antwerp and their first day in Paris.

Dan swayed forwards a bit, feeling the growing need to sit down. Luckily, Kyle’s grip on his wrists kept him upright and also helped to ground him. This was fine, he tried to reassure himself, he was just experiencing some strange, prolonged form of déja-vu which would surely wear off in a moment. It would be fine. He was tired, that was all – and clearly still reeling from his surprise awakening just a few minutes ago, so who could blame him if he was a bit out of it?

Waving off the others’ concerned looks, he pulled away from Kyle and went to the sink to wash his hands.

“Anyway,” Will continued after another glance at Dan, “we really should be going now if we want to make that interview.”

Everything would be fine, it would all be fine…

 

* * *

 

They bumped into the fan and her father – again – on the way and Dan couldn’t get out more than basic pleasantries because he’d seen this all before. At least this time they were all together, which took some of the pressure off; he was able to fall back a bit since the fan seemed perfectly content to interrogate Kyle about how they planned to spend their free time in the city.

He avoided speaking any French, still cringing at the thought of what happened last time, and they excused themselves as quickly as was polite before heading over for the interview which they actually arrived at on time.

Regrettably it wasn’t any less awkward than last time with Dan feeling as off-kilter as he did – that’s the reason Dan was going with anyway, stubbornly ignoring the fact that he’d seated himself as a barrier between the interviewer and Kyle and was derailing any attempts at flirting. He was probably coming off as some kind of egomaniac, but at least the time seemed to fly by this time and before he knew it they were back in that overly warm radio station. Dan refused to take off his glasses despite the fogginess of the lenses and they got out of there without any major incident.

One difference was that Kyle was markedly less hyper today, and had been shooting Dan concerned glances throughout the interview and their radio appearance. Even though Dan spent some time investigating the source of the overheated studio, which turned out to be a faulty radiator, Kyle managed to corner him as they were leaving and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “You seem really out of it today.”

Dan weighed up the pros and cons of talking to him about it and ultimately decided against it, remembering the weird looks he’d received that morning. Hopefully he could sleep whatever it was off tonight and he’d be alright in the morning.

“No worse than usual,” he assured him with a wry smile.

Kyle seemed unconvinced, but let it go. “If you say so. But anyway, I wanted to ask, since we have tomorrow off to do what we want, I thought we could –”

“Seriously, guys,” Woody called over his shoulder, “we’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up!” and they rushed to follow him.

The gig that night went fine, with Dan getting lost in the comforting familiarity of the music and the routine of performing. He did remember to watch the ground as he walked back to the stage after Two Evils and stepped over a pile of broken glass which he knew with a grim certainty would otherwise have gone into his foot, but other than that it was just like any normal show.

He turned down the offer of drinks again and even skipped the shower, trudging up to his room and bundling himself up in the duvet. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for sleep to take him.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

With a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, Dan opened his eyes and didn’t even jump when he saw Kyle’s face staring down at him. _Well, fuck_ , he thought. He pushed down a wave of panic.

Kyle seemed disappointed by his lack of reaction, but he recovered quickly and poked Dan in the forehead. “Time to wake up!” he sing songed. He pushed himself up and left the room, going on about coffee and being late, but Dan wasn’t really paying attention. He needed to get out and try to figure out what was going on.

After pulling on some clothes and his shoes, he left the bunk area and strode off the bus, ignoring the shouts of his band mates and the crew as he continued walking, heading in the opposite direction to the one they had gone in the previous two days. He pulled his hood up over his head in an attempt to avoid recognition and ducked into a small café, ordering _un chocolat chaud, s’il vous plaît_ , and sinking into an armchair at a secluded table near the back. Thankfully he’d remembered to take his notebook with him in a shoulder bag, and he pulled it out now with the intention to brainstorm what the fuck could be going on.

So. The past few days had all started out exactly the same: he had woken up in his bunk to the same song, with Kyle leaning over him as his “wake-up call” each time. He jotted this down. Going off his admittedly small frame of reference so far, it seemed like things would generally play out in a similar way after that initial moment, but were still obviously heavily influenced by what Dan chose to do or say, as you would expect. Even so, if he tried to drink the coffee the mug would break, and Kyle would come to help him. He imagined they would also continue to come across the fan and her father, and their interview would be awkward, and the radio station would be unbearably warm.

Dan set the pen down and looked at what he’d written, scratching the back of his head. He was puzzled by the fact that it wasn’t even tender, the way he’d expected it to be after hitting it the other day, but then it occurred to him that that day technically hadn’t happened anymore.

So was he being reset every day when he went to sleep? He kept ending up in his bunk despite falling asleep in a hotel room, and he didn’t seem to retain any injuries; his foot was also wound-free. How had this happened though, and why? Was this some kind of Groundhog Day deal where he was supposed to change as a person and make a speech about the power of love? He wrinkled his nose. God, he hoped not.

It occurred to him that he should probably have been freaking out more about this, but honestly he didn’t really see the point. It didn’t even feel real – it was like something out of a film, and he still couldn’t fully convince himself he wasn’t dreaming.

All he could do now was test the theory and, thankful that he’d forgone the coffee today, he tugged his hood down lower over his face and settled into the armchair, letting warmth of the café lull him back to sleep.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

That answered that, then. Today, Dan decided, he would try to make the day run as smoothly as possible in the hopes that it would somehow get him out of the loop. When he opened his eyes, he tried to act suitably surprised at the sight of Kyle leaning over him.

“Kyle!” he exclaimed, gratified when Kyle grinned down at him.

“What a way to start the day, am I right?” He preened.

Dan went through the motions of getting dressed, avoided the coffee and ushered everyone off the bus. Upon being approached by the fan, who cast a speculative gaze between him and Kyle, he struck up a conversation using the time they had spare from leaving the bus early and even got in a bit of a complain about how scattered his mind had felt lately.

“So today I’m just taking things as they come, really,” he was saying to her. “Won’t let it get me down!”

“Don’t worry,” she told him, gaze intense, “I have faith you’ll get it right!”

They parted ways and Dan headed to the interview in a good mood, filled with a new resolve. He tried his best to engage with the interviewer’s questions and the time passed by much more enjoyably, and after a revitalising lunch at the café they’d been visiting he even managed to power through the radio appearance without running out of steam.

By the time they went on for the gig, he was pretty confident that the day had gone as well as it possibly could, and the night continued in that same vein. It went so well that he even had a couple of post-gig drinks with everyone else at the hotel bar before he and Kyle, who was indeed rooming with him, retired to their room.

“Hey,” Kyle slurred, pointing a finger at him, “do _not_ lemme sleep without setting an alarm… got plans for tomorrow… _big_ plans…”

Hopefully, so would Dan, if he’d managed to fix things today.

Tipsy from the alcohol and convinced he’d solved his problem, he drifted off on top of the covers while Kyle was in the shower.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

“For _fuck’s_ sake,” Dan groaned.

Kyle huffed out a laugh above him. “I know, but much as I would love it, we can’t spend all day lying around in bed. Uh.” He paused, and Dan opened his eyes. “I mean – separately, that is. Sleeping. In our own individual beds. All of us! That’s what I would love, personally. A well-rested band is a successful band – I’ve always said that, and–”

“I think we’re going to be late,” Dan cut him off, saving him from his own rambling.

“Shit, you’re right.”

In the kitchenette, a baleful look from Kyle stopped Dan from skipping the coffee that had been prepared for him, so he took care to avoid the handle entirely and just hold it between his palms, with much more success than last time.

The day passed by much the same as any of the others, and Dan had the horrific realisation that he was already beginning to fall into the routine of it. What would he accomplish by going through the same motions, day in day out? Would he be trapped like this forever? His distraction meant that he forgot all about the glass on the floor and ended up impaling his foot again, actually gasping into the microphone this time and drawing everyone’s attention to it.

“Sorry,” he apologised, reassuring everyone that he was fine, and he made it through the rest of the show without issue. By the time they had finished performing, though, his foot was starting to throb. Woody slung an arm around his waist when it was over and helped him limp back to the dressing room, where he sat down on the sofa. Before he could check what damage had been done, though, Kyle dropped down next to him and lifted Dan’s foot into his lap.

“There’s still glass stuck in there.” He frowned, pulling out a couple of larger shards which had still been embedded in the sole and also in Dan’s foot, as it turned out. He quickly unlaced the shoe and tugged it off, tossing it over his shoulder and moving to roll down Dan’s sock, which he gently pulled away from the bloodied skin.

“Damn,” he muttered, “that’s – that’s a decent amount of blood, there. Didn’t it hurt?” He rolled up the leg of Dan’s jeans a few times to keep it away from the blood, not seeming to care that he was getting it on his own trousers.

“Well, yeah,” Dan sighed, though it had probably been more of a rhetorical question.

Will had procured a small first aid kit from somewhere and he handed it off to Kyle, who rummaged through it and retrieved a few packets of antiseptic wipes. He ripped one open and swiped at one of the cuts, making Dan flinch.

“Sorry, sorry!” Kyle apologised, cupping his other hand around the back of Dan’s heel and using his thumb to rub soothingly at the knob of his ankle. He moved in with the wipe more gently this time and Dan knew to brace himself for the sting, so it didn’t take long for Kyle to finish – though he did have to go through several packets to clean off all of the blood.

Still cradling Dan’s ankle, he rooted through the kit again one-handed. “Uh, should we put some plasters on it? I know it’s an awkward place but it’s better than nothing.”

He needed both hands to apply the plasters, so he rested Dan’s foot on his thigh and began to smooth them over the cuts one by one.

“This is so erotic,” Will commented from the other sofa, where he and Woody had apparently been sat watching them.

Dan felt the back of his neck heat up and he refused to meet anyone’s eyes.

“Bit of a foot fetishist are we, Will?” Kyle wondered after a moment, making Woody laugh and successfully deflecting the attention away from them as Will got ribbed on.

Dan glanced up and found Kyle already looking at him. He trailed a light finger over the arch of Dan’s foot, watching him shiver before breaking eye contact and rolling the leg of his jeans back down.

“Your sock’s a lost cause, I’m afraid,” he told Dan, “but I’ll help you get back to the hotel without it. Can you walk alright? Doubt you’ll be wanting to do much trekking around the city tomorrow, will you. Shit.” He pulled a face.

The lot of them made their way slowly back to the hotel, most of them passing on drinks in deference to Dan’s injury. The solidarity was heartening.

Once they were in their room, Kyle let Dan have first pick of the beds – he went for his usual one, though Kyle obviously didn’t know that – and even fetched some ice from the machine down the hall for Dan’s water.

“It’s only a few cuts,” Dan protested, but he had to admit he was enjoying this, particularly when he compared it to the first time he’d stepped on the glass and had to deal with it alone. He closed his eyes and listened as Kyle spoke to him from the bathroom in between bursts of brushing his teeth, finding himself drifting off to the sound.

“... for quite a while now... and so that’s what made me decide… Dan, we need to… I want…”

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

It was a shame, really, that nothing that happened would carry over to the next day. Dan had felt like maybe there had been something happening there between him and Kyle, but now the slate had been wiped clean.

Dan bit his lip and sighed, finally opening his eyes to look up at Kyle.

“Hello,” he greeted, and watched as Kyle blinked.

Suddenly, a thought struck him and he tangled a hand in the neck of Kyle’s t-shirt. Without pause for further thought, he used his grip to pull Kyle down towards him and brought their lips together.

“Mmph!” said Kyle against his mouth.

But he relaxed into it, supporting his weight with one hand next to Dan’s head on the pillow.

Dan couldn’t actually believe he was going along with it, and kept expecting him to pull away at any moment – he’d wanted to try it just once and damn the consequences, seeing as they would just go away when he next fell asleep, but Kyle was actually kissing him back, and–

Kyle pulled away, of _course_. “Wait, Dan… I – I don’t–”

“No,” Dan interrupted him, cursing himself inwardly. Faced with the very real prospect of having to hear Kyle reject him, even though it wouldn’t matter tomorrow, Dan suddenly wasn’t sure that he could deal with it in the present.

Kyle’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you–”

“Please, just... don’t say anything about it, I get it.” He laughed uneasily and chastised himself for his awkwardness. “God. It’s not like any of this means anything anyway.” Kyle would forget and Dan would be back in the same position he was a minute ago.

“... oh,” Kyle said. “Right, of course not.” Stiffly, he levered himself out of the bunk and stood up. “Um. Time to get up.”

With that, he fled to the front of the bus.

Well, it was better than an outright rejection. Hopefully Dan could get this day over with as quickly as possible, then it was just a matter of triggering the reset so that things would be back to normal, or his current version of normal, anyway.

 

* * *

 

Kyle seemed wary of him throughout the rest of the day, restless, like he was expecting Dan to jump him or something. Which was mildly insulting, somewhere beneath the mortification. At least, Dan thought to himself, he’d never managed to build up the courage to do anything like this on a normal day.

It wasn’t much of a consolation.

By the time they were gearing up to go onstage, Kyle seemed to have come to terms with what had happened that morning – or, that’s what Dan assumed when Kyle approached him after he’d finished switching out his glasses for his contacts.

Bracing himself for an unpleasant conversation, Dan was surprised to find himself backed up against the wall.

“Kyle, what–”

Kyle didn’t let him finish. He crashed their mouths together, pressing Dan into the wall and stealing his breath. It felt like he was channelling all of the day’s restless energy into the kiss and Dan could do nothing but accept it. Dan was gasping by the time he pulled away.

“Like you said, it doesn’t have to mean anything,” Kyle told him, before pushing off the wall and heading onstage.

_What_?

Everything was a blur after that – going onstage, talking to the crowd, working his way through the setlist. He was physically present but his mind was caught on that kiss and he knew his distraction was showing. Charlie shot him a funny look when he went to have a swig of water after stumbling his way through Glory, and all he could do was shrug helplessly in response.

At least he had the presence of mind to avoid stepping on the glass towards the end of the gig, but even that reminded him of Kyle’s hands on him as he’d helped to clean him up the day before. It was like he’d suddenly lost the ability to push these thoughts to the back of his mind – not that he’d ever been particularly good at it anyway – and now he didn’t know what to do with them.

When the show was over, Kyle announced that they were all going for drinks at the hotel bar.

“No exceptions,” he said, locking eyes with Dan.

This was met with a cheer, and if anyone noticed the weird tension they didn’t mention it.

By the time they were on their second round of drinks, Dan had gone over it countless times in his head. Obviously Kyle had taken his earlier self-directed statement of dismissal as a denial of any romantic attachment… and he seemed to be okay with that? Dan’s heart sank to think that Kyle was interested in him only in a physical sense, but he supposed it was better than nothing. Even so, initiating a purely physical relationship with Kyle was the _last_ thing Dan wanted.

… or was it? Dan glanced back at Kyle from where he was stood leaning against the bar. As he kept being reminded, this day had no lasting consequences. This could be an opportunity for Dan to get the tangled knot of emotions that he felt whenever he was with Kyle out of his system, without having to worry about making their friendship awkward. Tomorrow’s Kyle wouldn’t know about it and he’d be back to being oblivious about Dan’s feelings. Dan sighed.

Before he could think much further on it, Kyle noticed him looking and started to make his way over. He came to a sudden stop halfway and paused for a moment before indicating the back door with a jerk of his head and changing course. There was nothing for Dan to do but finish his drink and follow.

Outside, Kyle was leaning against the wall and a quick look around assured Dan that they were alone. He let the door fall closed behind him and studied Kyle. He didn’t look like he was interested in talking, so Dan stayed quiet as he moved closer and got into his space.

As Kyle kissed him once more, Dan ignored the part of him screaming that this was a bad idea and kissed back, pulling himself up to his full height and leaning into it. It felt just as thrilling as last time, the intensity in no way diminished, and Dan wondered if that was just what kissing Kyle was like.

His heart thudded. He didn’t know if this was something he’d be able to give up.

Frenzied, he pushed closer, fists tightening in the front of Kyle’s shirt and as he tilted his hips forward. Kyle’s hands smoothed reassuringly over his shoulders in response and his hips, which had been out of reach before, pushed forward as well to meet Dan’s.

Dan couldn’t help but moan into his mouth, and this only seemed to spur Kyle on. The palm of his hand came to rest against Dan’s neck and their breath mingled when he pulled away.

“Come on,” he said, and led Dan back through the bar and up the stairs to their floor. They walked in silence. If Kyle wasn’t going to say anything then Dan sure as fuck wasn’t either; at this point he was averse to doing anything that might cause him to reconsider what they were doing.

Dan was so focussed on not thinking about it that he ended up stumbling over a fold in the carpet, narrowly avoiding landing flat on his face and instead catching himself awkwardly against the wall. Kyle snorted out a laugh and stepped closer, the strange tension between them broken, and mimicked Dan’s hunched-over position. Dan didn’t know if it was the situation or the alcohol, but he found himself breaking into a fit of deranged giggles, doubling over with it.

When he lifted his head again, Kyle wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Dan, I–” he cut himself off, opting instead to lean in to meet Dan’s lips again. This kiss was different from the others, though – softer, less urgent than before. Dan gripped at Kyle’s wrists where his hands were framing Dan’s face.

As if broken from a trance, Kyle wrenched his mouth away and disentangled himself from Dan, moving to put some distance between them.

“Shit, I – I can’t do this, actually, sorry Dan.” He took another step back and swiped a hand over his mouth. “ _Fuck_.”

“No… it’s fine,” Dan rasped, clenching his fingers to stop them from reaching after him.

“I thought I could enjoy it, even though you… I’m such a fucking… _ugh_!” He looked genuinely distressed.

“It’s fine,” Dan repeated.

Kyle was shaking his head. “Of course this was never going to work, not when it’s _you_ , not when I’d been planning – I mean come _on_ –”

“I said it’s fine,” Dan said sharply.

Kyle only looked away.

In truth, it wasn’t fine at all. Dan cursed himself for letting things get this far in the first place. It had been a stupid idea to kiss Kyle that morning and it hadn’t worked out at all – all it had accomplished was to make Dan all too aware of what he was missing out on.

Wordlessly, he turned away and continued on to their room, dragging a hand over his face as he went. He heard Kyle trudging along behind him and didn’t even bother taking off his shoes once they got into the room, flopping face down onto the bed.

As Kyle wandered around getting ready for bed, Dan pressed his face into the pillow in an attempt to block it out. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling that, counter to what he had previously hoped, no amount of kissing would ever be enough to get Kyle ‘out of his system’.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

Not ready to face Kyle again after the previous day’s revelations, Dan rolled over onto his front as soon as he gained consciousness. That was another side effect of this loop, it seemed; there was no slow drift into wakefulness, only a sudden continuation from where he left off. He wasn’t experiencing any physical effects of exhaustion, but he didn’t feel rested either.

A hand on his back broke him out of his thoughts.

“Hey, none of that,” Kyle chastised, giving him a little shake. “You need to wake up!”

And just like that, everything was back to normal.

He didn’t know what to say to anyone once he’d got dressed, so he drank the coffee just for something to do. When the mug inevitably broke, thankfully after he’d already drank half of it this time, he shrugged off Kyle’s attempts to help and went to change his t-shirt with a sense of resignation.

He was finding it hard to look Kyle in the eye after what had just happened between them, even though Kyle had no idea about it. He was struck with a sudden spike of guilt. Yeah, Kyle had been into it at the time, but now the day had reset he had no way of knowing anything had happened at all. Dan supposed it hadn’t really happened, anymore, but Dan had the memory of it still and something about that felt wrong. The guilt was almost enough to eclipse the hurt he felt over that fact that Kyle hadn’t been able to go through with it and _had_ eventually rejected him, after all, even if Dan hadn’t admitted the true depth of his feelings. Dan knew he would carry that knowledge with him.

By the time he came out again, the rest of the band had gone on ahead of him, probably having sensed his strange mood and wanted to give him some time to himself. He appreciated the thought, but it just made him all the more aware of how awkward he was being.

He managed to push the awkwardness aside for his brief interaction with the French fan on the way – even if the day didn’t matter, he didn’t want a fan to have to suffer through a disappointing conversation with him when she’d come all this way to see them. It was grounding in a way and helped him to fall back into the routine of things. Then after that there was nothing left to do but go on to the interview, which he was only a little bit late for, so surely nobody would mind too much.

When he was brought into the room, he saw that the interview was already underway and – oh, right. He’d forgotten.

Much like the first time, Kyle and the interviewer seemed to have really hit it off, and seeing them laughing together only served to sour Dan’s mood again. Just yesterday he’d been kissing Dan into the wall, and now he was perfectly happy flirting with some random woman he’d just met! Even if he’d said that what he was doing with Dan didn’t mean anything…

Dan’s bitterness faded as she rested a hand briefly over Kyle’s and he couldn’t help but sink into himself a bit. Of course Kyle was flirting with this woman – she was pretty and friendly and didn’t have any secrets to keep from him. Kyle wouldn’t face any inner turmoil over being with her, and she wouldn’t leave him in the middle of a hallway when he – when he faltered, and said he couldn’t do this with _her_ , and treated the entire thing like some horrible ordeal that Dan wished he could forget about _too_ because it was screwing with his _head_ and he didn’t–

“You alright, mate?”

It was Will who had spoken, but Dan realised that everyone had stopped talking and was looking at him. Even Kyle. Then he also realised that he was still just standing there by the doorway like an idiot, and who knew how much of what he was feeling was showing on his face?

He shook his head and hurried over to join them on the sofa. “Yeah, it’s fine,” he assured them.

It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine. He felt like a broken record.

The sick feeling continued to stew in his stomach as the interview went on and he could feel someone’s eyes on him, but he was struggling to meet anyone’s gaze. He put on a brave face and answered any questions directed to him with as much enthusiasm as he could muster and powered through.

As they were leaving later on, Kyle declined the interviewer’s invitation to lunch in favour of following Dan, as Dan discovered when Kyle caught up with him on his way out of the building.

“She really liked you, you could have made a move,” Dan told him, though it pained him to do so.

Kyle blinked. “I – what? No, I wouldn’t – never mind. Look, would you maybe – do you want to go for lunch, just you and me? We were supposed to go to this café Dick found but… I dunno… not like there’s a shortage of cafés in Paris.”

This was new. On all of the previous days, Kyle had never suggested the two of them going somewhere else for lunch. What had brought this on? His curiosity won out against the desire to avoid Kyle and he found himself nodding along, then before he knew it they were at a new café Dan hadn’t seen before just a few streets away from where they would be making their radio appearance.

After they’d got their food, they sat down and Kyle leant forward over the table. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you today?” he asked.

So that was the reason. Dan picked up his sandwich and took a bite out of it as he mulled over what to tell Kyle. _Just trying to come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably never kiss you again, even though you don’t remember kissing me in the first place_? Yeah, that would go down well.

Although.

Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to tell Kyle about the time loop. After all, the worst case scenario would be him refusing to believe Dan and maybe getting annoyed that he wasn’t taking things seriously, and even then it wouldn’t matter in the long run. It might be nice to have a confidant, and it could be that he could provide some useful ideas as to what Dan could do to try to get out of it.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Dan warned him once he’d finished chewing.

“Uh, excuse you!” Kyle sat back in his chair. “There is no limit to what I would believe, thanks very much.”

“Okay, but you actually aren’t going to believe this.”

If anything, Kyle seemed to take that as a challenge. “Try me!”

“Alright.” He put the sandwich back down and wiped his palms on his jeans. “I’m… these past few days – well, one day, technically… everything just keeps – not – I wouldn’t say ‘repeating itself’, because it’s not the same, but…” he trailed off with a sigh. “Have you seen Groundhog Day?”

Kyle took a moment before replying. “I _have_ … what exactly are you trying to say, here?”

Dan sighed again. “I think I’m living it.”

There was silence.

“See, you don’t believe me!”

“No, I didn’t say anything!” Kyle cried, drawing the attention of several surrounding customers. “I’m – I’m thinking,” he continued in a lowered voice. “So, what, you’re serious? You mean like, like the day keeps restarting, or what?”

“Yeah,” Dan confirmed, “whenever I go to sleep, and everything that happened that day gets erased and nobody remembers it but me.”

“And, just to be sure, you’re definitely not having me on?”

“ _No_ , I’m not. I wish I were, but I’m really not.” Picking his sandwich back up, Dan took another mournful bite.

“Okay. Shit.” Kyle sat in silence for a bit, drumming his fingers against the table. “Okay. Have you told me about this before?”

“Huh?”

Kyle gestured with his own sandwich. “Like, previous versions of me. From previous versions of today. Do you tell me every time?”

Dan couldn’t reply for a moment through the tightening in his chest. Kyle was actually taking him seriously, or at least humouring him, which was more than he could have hoped for.

“I – no,” he said eventually, “this is my first time telling anybody. Honestly, I never thought anyone would believe me.”

Kyle nodded. “Fair. You had any ideas about how to, like, stop it? ‘Cause if today’s sulky avoidance and spacing out is part of your master plan, it’s a bit… I have to say I’m dubious.”

“I don’t know! I’ve tried, kind of, I don’t – it’s not that easy, I’ve just been going along with it. Every time I wake up and it’s the same day again, I just…” Dan ran a hand through his hair.  “I don’t like to think about it,” he confessed to his plate.

Kyle finished eating and wiped his hands on a napkin. “Alright, well, first of all: we _are_ going to fix this. Can’t be having you running around Paris in perpetuum having more fun than the rest of us, and – well, it’s not really the time, but – I mean, I _was_ quite looking forward to tomorrow, so there’s that. Okay?”

Dan bit his lip and nodded.

“Second,” Kyle continued, “if we don’t fix this today, _please_ tell me as soon as possible tomorrow – today – whatever, explain the situation, I _promise_ I will believe you. If I don’t, say that like… I don’t know.” He thought for a moment until his eyes widened and he thumped a fist against the table.

“Last night,” he said after a moment’s hesitation, “I had some interesting dreams. The most dramatic one was Woody threatening to leave the band if you didn’t give him lead vocals on a new song – I woke up sobbing because I’m not gonna lie, it got nasty – but anyway, bring that up and I’ll have to believe you. The earlier the better, ‘cause it is currently… seven minutes past two, and we don’t really have a lot of free time left to figure things out. Maybe if we start earlier, we’ll make more progress.”

Dan leant back in his chair and let out a quiet sigh, some of his built-up tension leaving with it. It really did feel good to be able to share this problem with someone, and it helped to take the pressure off.

“Thank you,” he said, “for believing me about this.”

Kyle shrugged. “I’m gonna look a right twat tomorrow if you’re making all this up, but if you’re – _suffering_ , and I just laughed in your face? Fuck that, I wouldn’t do that to you – I’m not taking the risk.”

Dan’s stomach fluttered. Kyle was making it really hard for him to forget about what had gone on yesterday.

“So…” Kyle cleared his throat. “I mean, with this whole do-over situation… you could say whatever you wanted to someone, to just – to see how they’d react, and then if it didn’t go how you wanted it to, it wouldn’t even matter, right? They wouldn’t even know.”

“Yeah… I guess not,” Dan said carefully, thinking about the events of the previous day.

Kyle cocked an eyebrow. “Well? Anything you wanna confess?”

If he only knew.

“Yeah, your hair looks stupid like that,” Dan dead-panned. He pushed his chair out from the table, putting an end to _that_ conversation. “Come on, we still have that radio thing before the gig.”

 

* * *

 

They didn’t really get a chance to speak again until after the concert, but even just the knowledge that he wasn’t alone was a massive weight off Dan’s shoulders. It was enough to carry him through to their arrival back at the hotel, where he and Kyle settled on one of the sofas in the lobby to brainstorm ideas.

“I’ve been thinking about this,” Kyle started them off, “and my first question is this. You said the loop resets when you fall asleep, right?”

“Right,” Dan confirmed.

“In that case – just stay awake? Assuming you haven’t tried that already, anyway.”

Dan paused. “I haven’t. I’ve wanted to get the day over with as soon as possible, so it didn’t even occur to me.”

“Well, it’s a starting point. I’ll stay up with you – it’s nearly eleven, we can have some coffee, knock about, make a night of it!”

“Alright,” Dan agreed, and they proceeded to spend the next hour doing just that.

Dan made a quick trip to a nearby bin to dispose of his coffee cup before sitting back down next to Kyle. “Right,” he said, checking his watch, “one hour down… who knows how many to go?”

Kyle stretched his arms out above his head. “Awh mate, we’re just getting started. I hope you’re not getting bored already becau–”

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

Dan flinched convulsively and jerked upright in bed, slamming his forehead straight into Kyle’s nose.

“ _GAH!_ ” Kyle yelped as he fell backwards, hand clutched to his face.

After taking a moment to come to terms with the fact that, between one blink and the next, he’d gone from sitting on a sofa to lying in his bunk, Dan scrambled to help him, apologising along the way.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry! Let me see…” He pulled Kyle’s hand away from his face. “Oh, _fuck_!”

“I’m alright!” Kyle assured him, blood in his teeth. It had spilt down from his nose and was caught up in his beard, which at least saved his t-shirt.

“Clearly!” Dan dithered for a moment before using his grip on Kyle’s hand to pull him up and tug him towards the kitchen.

Will hissed when he saw them. “Jesus, Dan, what have you done to him?”

Dan ignored him. “We’re going to have to reschedule that interview for tomorrow,” he told the others, “Kyle can’t make it like this, and we’re probably late as it is.” He tore off a few sheets of kitchen roll and wadded them up, handing them to Kyle. “Here, tilt your head back and hold this to your nose.”

“It’s fine by me if we reschedule,” Woody said. “Do you think they’ll mind?”

Dan doubted it mattered at this point.

He busied himself with soaking some more kitchen roll in water from the tap, which he then approached Kyle with. It wasn’t until he had his hand hovering an inch away from Kyle’s face that he hesitated, suddenly aware of the everyone else in the room with them. Regardless, he decided this would only seem weird if he made it weird, and pressed the tissue firmly against Kyle’s upper lip.

Thankful that it hadn’t had time to dry yet, he tuned out the conversations of the others and focussed on cleaning away the blood. He absolutely did not meet Kyle’s eyes. Eventually the bleeding stopped and Kyle threw the bloody mess of balled up kitchen roll into the bin.

By this point, everyone else had lost interest and gone their separate ways, intent on making the most of their free morning now that they didn’t have to worry about the interview.

“Brunch is on you then?” Kyle teased.

They decided to scope out the city and ended up walking along the riverside. The view was lovely and Dan was actually feeling pretty relaxed despite himself. They found a bench and stopped for a while to admire the view and Dan figured it was as good a time as any to try to explain the time loop thing again, but this time, for whatever reason, Kyle didn’t seem to believe him.

“Nice try, Dan,” he scoffed, “but I’ve seen Groundhog Day.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dan sighed, frustrated. It had been so easy yesterday, but he supposed he hadn’t been acting sufficiently strangely today to convince Kyle something was wrong. So much for promising to believe him!

Along with the recollection of that promise came the realisation that Kyle had already told him what to do if he was having trouble convincing him.

Dan levelled a smirk at Kyle. “I know what’ll make you believe me,” he told him.

“Oh?” Kyle eyed him warily.

“I know what you dreamt about last night.”

After a moment, it seemed to click and the colour drained from Kyle’s face. “You… you do?”

Dan shifted. That wasn’t really the reaction he’d been expecting. “Well, yeah. You told me about it, in case you didn’t believe me about being stuck in the same day…”

Kyle opened and closed his mouth. “Shit, did I… would I really do that to myself?” he wondered.

“Yeah… I mean, waking up in tears isn’t _that_ embarrassing,” Dan tried, in an awkward attempt at comfort. “I suppose I’d be quite upset too if I thought Woody wanted to leave the band…”

“If Woody… oh shit!” Kyle exclaimed. “Yeah, I _did_ dream about that! Jesus, alright, that makes much more sense.”

Dan frowned at him. “Than what?”

“It doesn’t matter, I believe you now!” Kyle said, waving an arm at him. “Haha, what an embarrassing dream, forgot about that… shit though, a time loop, you say? And you’ve told me about it in the past, obviously – like, an alternate me. That’s wicked!”

Dan shook his head. “Not really. I’ve been through this same day quite a few times now and each time I wake up back where I started, and I’ve had enough.”

Kyle hummed. “Shit. Alright, if it’s a matter of waking up, have you tried–”

“Not going to sleep in the first place?” Dan chuckled despite himself. “Yeah, that’s exactly what you said last time. Did _not_ work, and I’m not keen to try it again – really jarring experience, being thrown back in time.”

Kyle winced, hand coming up to check his nose. “Yeah, I could tell… well, I can only hope you’ve not been headbutting me _every_ day.”

“RIght, so I won’t be trying that again.” Dan rubbed his forehead.

They sat in silence for a while as Kyle seemed to search for something to say. Eventually he shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you,” he sighed. “Is the universe trying to teach you a lesson or something?”

Dan couldn’t help but feel a bit affronted at that. “What, you’re saying I deserve this?” he asked.

“No, just…” Kyle pursed his lips. Dan stared and tried not to remember what they had felt like against his own. “This is always the kind of fucked up thing that happens – in films, or whatever – when the guy’s been sodding about and needs some kind of wake-up call, you know?”

Dan had to admit that he’d been feeling pretty listless lately – songwriting hadn’t been coming along as well as he’d have liked, and his resident heartache had been weighing on him more heavily than usual... but he didn’t really see what that could have to do with being trapped in time like this. He’d just had a bad day, that was all, and maybe he’d taken it out on people unfairly but nobody was perfect. He wasn’t some insensitive arsehole who needed to be taught a lesson… was he?

“Maybe you’re right,” Dan muttered, dejected. He swung his leg idly, displacing some of the gravel below his foot.

Kyle shifted closer on the bench, using his momentum to knock his foot against Dan’s and still its movement. “It doesn’t have to be a negative thing,” he pointed out. “Like, maybe the lesson’s something like, ‘take some time for yourself for once, loser’, or – or who even knows! It’s like a free day.”

With a half-hearted smile, Dan hummed something noncommittal.

“No, come on,” Kyle continued, having amped himself up now, “we’re sat here looking at a river – bollocks to that, we’ve done that, what now?”

Dan checked his phone. “Well, there’s that radio thing soon.”

“And what, you’ve just been going to that every time?” Kyle scoffed. “ _Dan_ , what’s the point in that? I’d be taking advantage of the situation! You’ve got free reign to do what you want – without consequences, if what you’re saying’s true – nothing’s off the table!”

“I can’t _ditch_ it, we –”

“What good’s going to it done so far?” Kyle asked.

Dan had to admit he had a point, and that’s how they ended up silencing their phones and disappearing into the throngs of tourists headed to the metro station. They proceeded to spend the rest of the day exploring the city, window-shopping, buying food from street vendors and just generally having a good time. It was nice.

Really nice, actually, and when Dan woke up the next day – the same day – he decided he wouldn’t mind doing that kind of thing again, so after he had brought Kyle up to speed again they took the train to Disneyland.

“Originally I planned – well, I’m glad we’re getting the chance to do this, anyway!” Kyle had said to him as they bought their tickets, grinning.

Dan had toyed with the idea of explaining the situation to the others and inviting them along – after all, it wasn’t really fair that he and Kyle should have all the fun – but ultimately decided against it. He knew he could count on Kyle believing him, but convincing a whole group of people was more than he felt ready to try.

Also, he was selfish. If it was just the two of them, it was almost like they were on a date.

The day flew by, just as the previous one had, and yet again Dan woke up unwilling to return to the mundanity of the day’s usual routine, so he ditched his responsibilities in favour of spending the day with Kyle again, doing the same thing the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

They were doing something different every day, be it befriending locals in broken French at a pub or chatting with tourists at a crêpe stand near the Louvre. Dan had to admit he much preferred this to the mind-numbing repetition he had been slowly growing used to. After a while, the days started to blur together. In his mind, Dan glazed over the whole process of convincing Kyle of his situation every morning, skipping instead from laughing in a restaurant to bumping into the odd fan, to spending the day baiting the others into skipping out on their scheduled activities, to petting a dog in the street –

– to twisting his ankle after misjudging the height of a kerb.

Kyle pulled Dan’s arm over his shoulders for support and together they stumbled into a nearby McDonald’s. It was fairly busy but they managed to find an empty booth which Kyle deposited Dan into.

“Right, stay put,” he told him. “I’ll be right back.”

Dan didn’t really have much of a choice, given the sharp stab of pain he experienced trying to put weight on his ankle.

When Kyle returned, he was holding a small carrier bag as well as a couple of portions of chips, all of which he dropped onto the table before sliding into the booth next to Dan. He yanked Dan’s leg up unceremoniously into his lap and began rolling up his trouser leg, and Dan had a sudden memory of shards of glass being pulled from the sole of his foot. Eyebrows jumping, he glanced hastily around them.

“ _Kyle_ ,” he hissed, scandalised, “we’re in a restaurant!”

Kyle reached into the bag on the table and pulled out what looked like a rolled-up bandage. “We’re at McDonald’s,” he corrected, his own eyebrows raised, “and anyway, it’s not like anyone’s paying us any mind.”

Dan couldn’t really argue with that. He shoved a few chips into his mouth as Kyle started to wrap the compression bandage around his foot and ankle. It wouldn’t help in the long-term, but it would take the pain away for now, and that was all Dan needed. He’d take a swollen ankle over a cut-up foot any day.

“At least it isn’t as bad as last time,” he mused, voicing this thought.

“Huh?” Kyle paused his ministrations. “What time’s that?”

“You know, with the glass,” Dan prompted.

When Kyle only shook his head, Dan remembered with a jolt that _right_ , that hadn’t actually happened as far as Kyle was aware. With this memory came the sickening realisation that he’d been stuck in this loop for so long, now, that he was starting to forget which memories had happened before it started and which of them existed only in his own mind, forgotten to Kyle and the others forever. _Fuck_.

“I have to break the loop,” he realised, straightening in his seat.

Kyle looked understandably confused, but he tightened his hand around Dan’s calf when he tried to pull his leg away. “Alright,” he said, “give me a minute to do this though.”

After he’d finished, Dan tugged his shoe back on and hurried Kyle out of the booth, wincing as he put weight on his foot. It felt better than before but would still take a bit of getting used to.

“We’ve got to do the gig,” he muttered, frenzied. “Maybe if we do that it’ll be alright, we have to – it might work this time, I’ve learnt my lesson now, I need to…”

Continuing to mutter under his breath, he hobbled outside and started off towards the venue, Kyle trailing behind him.

“At least slow down,” he urged to no avail.

When they arrived, the rest of the guys were already there and were more than a little bit pissed off about Dan and Kyle disappearing for the day.

“What the fuck were you _thinking_ ,” Woody wanted to know. “We’re supposed to be professionals here, we can’t just not turn up to things like arseholes – Dan, you especially, I don’t know how _you_ can justify risking the band’s reputation like this!” He was outright shouting by this point, but his complaints were falling on deaf ears.

“Calm down, we’re here now aren’t we?” Kyle huffed, irritated. “We’ve got a gig to play. Can’t the fighting wait until after?”

It was a good effort, but Dan was already on his way out of the room. He locked himself in the toilet where he proceeded to spend at least an hour trying to calm himself down before he heard the call to go onstage.

It had been a while since Dan had performed, but he threw himself into it. He knew the setlist by heart and the crowd was as receptive as ever, but despite all that he felt somehow removed from it all.

Halfway through the concert, in what could only have been a fit of desperation, he subjected the crowd to a heartfelt speech about embracing life and not taking things for granted, cursing himself for doing what he had promised himself early on he wouldn’t. The fans seemed to enjoy it, even if he got perplexed stares from the others – bar Kyle, who just looked concerned.

“Alright,” Dan said into the mic on a sigh. “As you might have noticed, I’m a really shit dancer…”

He went on his usual spiel, asking the crowd to jump up and down with him, and bit back a wince of pain at the twinge he felt in his ankle when he crouched down. The pain had been gradually worsening over the course of the gig. Kyle had wanted to re-tie the compression wrap before they went onstage, but Dan’s downward spiral had sort of got in the way of that, so he had to make do with it as it was.

He shook his head to clear it and gestured to begin with the song, falling into its familiar rhythm. As he jumped up and down, he couldn’t keep his mind off everything that was the same at this gig as it had been at previous ones, and everything that was different, and what might have caused those things to happen differently this time, and whether or not it was important, and he needed to breathe but he wondered if these people had been expecting to hear him on the radio today, if they’d been disappointed when he didn’t show up, what they might be thinking about him, what his _bandmates_ might be thinking about him, if they were justified in their opinions when he’d been trying his _best_ , originally – if that even _counted_ anymore if it had all been erased, and he needed to _breathe_ , and it was just a bit longer and then it would be the interlude, and –

There was a sickening crack that seemed to resonate through Dan’s bones as he landed awkwardly from a jump, foot wrenching to the side. For a few long, confusing seconds, he heard the music dull into a high-pitched whining noise that almost managed to distract him from the searing pain shooting up his leg.

His vision whited out as the floor came up to meet him.

 

* * *

 

_“... mais dites-moi savez-vous ce que veut dire entre nous, ce que que veut dire zou bisou…”_

Dan’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the muted light streaming into his bunk as a rush of euphoria flooded through him at the sudden absence of pain. His heart was still thudding.

“Whoa, you alright?” Kyle asked him, a hand coming to brush across his suddenly sweating forehead.

“You have to _help_ me,” Dan urged him.

Kyle shifted closer. “Yeah, anything, just – what’s wrong?”

Instead of drawing his hand back, he rested it on the mattress next to Dan’s head. His face had fallen into a concerned frown and it was all Dan could see, caged in as he was.

_This is the same position we were in the first time we kissed_ – the thought flitted across his mind, unwarranted. It was another arrow in his heart; just one more memory unique to him. For all it had been a mistake, in retrospect – an awful, heart-rending mistake – he would have given anything for it to have actually happened and for Kyle to have remembered. At least that would be something.

“All of this is wrong, fucking – _zou bisou_ , it’s,” Dan moaned, shaking his head. He was stuck like this. “I’m–” _trapped, caged in, no way out_ – “don’t… there’s nothing I can do to _fix it_ …”

Kyle was saying something to him but Dan couldn’t recognise the words, only the low, soothing tone of his voice. His head was starting to feel foggy and he cringed in on himself.

“Can you move,” he muttered after a few shallow breaths. There wasn’t enough air.

Immediately Kyle moved back into the aisle, and Dan hoisted his legs over the side of his bunk, dropping his head to rest between his knees. He could feel Kyle hovering nearby for a moment before disappearing into the other room, giving him space he wasn’t sure he actually wanted, now that he had it.

It was only a couple of minutes, which Dan spent gulping in the cooler air of the aisle, before Kyle returned and crouched next to him. His palm landed on Dan’s back and he rubbed it gently over his spine until his breathing had settled into a steadier pace.

“I’ve told the others you’re not feeling well,” he informed him. He hesitated, hand stilling on Dan’s back. “If you’re feeling up to it, we can head out for a bit, get some fresh air. You can tell me whatever’s… going on.”

Dan nodded, and they did, after Dan had taken a moment to pull on a jumper and some trackies. They ended up wandering down to yet another café, one Dan figured they’d probably visited in a previous loop but had no real memory of.

Over a couple of glasses of water, Dan relayed the whole story to Kyle, trying to be as earnest as he could to ensure that Kyle would believe him. Maybe it was the inordinate detail he went into or maybe it was the desperation he could hear leaking into his voice, but Kyle only nodded along, face serious and open. After Dan was finished talking, Kyle took a drink of his water as he mulled it over.

“My first instinct would be to just say ‘don’t go to sleep’, but… well.” He shook his head.

“That seems to be your go-to suggestion,” Dan said, “but yeah, I’ve tried that already.”

Kyle dropped his hand to join the other in his lap and gazed into the distance. There was some generic sitcom playing on a small television mounted on the wall, laugh track barely audible over the sound of the other customers, and he stared blankly at it as he thought.

“This is weird,” he eventually said, meeting Dan’s eyes again. “I’m trying to think what past me would have already suggested, and avoid saying that again.”

One of the first things he’d asked Dan when he’d initially told him about the loop was whether or not Dan had used his situation as an opportunity to give voice to things he wouldn’t otherwise admit, and Dan wondered if the same thought had occurred to Kyle just now. He hadn’t really brought it up in more recent loops, but that was probably because Dan’s focus had been more on making the most of his situation than trying to find a way to get out of it.

Instead of mentioning it again, though, Kyle asked, “Have you had a look on TV Tropes?”

Dan blinked. “Huh?”

Kyle gestured to the TV. “Well, I mean, it’s just another trope, isn’t it?” he said. He pulled out his phone, opening up the web browser and typing. “So there has to be something helpful on there, right?”

There turned out to be plenty of examples on the page of times that this kind of thing had happened in various stories, but not much in the way of things Dan could do to stop it.

“It does say that figuring out what’s causing it could help,” Kyle pointed out. “Did you upset some witch? Anger a vengeful god?”

Dan shook his head, at a loss. “I have no idea! I’ve thought about that, obviously. The day went horribly the first time around and I wondered if I had to – fix it, or something, but I’ve had no luck so far.”

“I think in the film it was because Bill Murray was a dick,” Kyle said, “but you don’t really fit that archetype. Maybe there’s some kind of event flag you need to raise that you keep missing, or something like that? Fuck, I don’t know, like… missed opportunities, keeping the story from progressing like it’s meant to.”

“The story being my life?” Dan said with scepticism.

“What, you never know! There could be some life-altering event on the horizon that… isn’t getting the chance to… hm.” Kyle had narrowed his eyes.

Dan sat up straighter. “What, have you figured it out?” he demanded.

Kyle shook his head minutely. “No, it’s… I’m just being stupid. It’s nothing.” With a clap of his hands, he stood up. “Look, never mind all that. We should stay optimistic that tomorrow is actually going to be tomorrow, and not – shirk our responsibilities, or anything. You… just be really nice to everyone, because it can’t hurt, and we’ll do the radio thing and the gig and see what we think of along the way.”

It didn’t seem like much of a plan and Dan couldn’t help but feel the sting of disappointment. He’d thought for a moment that something had occurred to Kyle but it looked like despite everything, they didn’t know much more than they had when this whole thing had started.

He pulled himself together, though, for lack of any other option. New resolve was shining in Kyle’s eyes and really, who was Dan to snuff that out with his usual pessimism?

So he agreed to go along with their planned schedule and did make an effort to be nice to people, pushing past the shameful resentment he felt towards the flirtatious interviewer they spent the morning with and having a genuinely good time as a result.

At the radio station, he went out of his way to engage with the staff and even accepted a cup of coffee, despite the heat, in an attempt to avoid any potential ‘missed opportunities’ no matter how small they might have been. He told them about their dodgy radiator making everything uncomfortably warm. He allowed Will, who seemed to be feeling altruistic, to pay for his lunch, and he replied to messages as soon as he received them rather than putting it off.

He tweeted a few times, stuff about seizing the day and taking opportunities as they came, in some weird public form of self-motivation. He made a conscious decision to say things as they occurred to him on the off-chance that it would cause something different to happen, which led to some new conversations but ultimately didn’t seem to change anything.

Nothing did.

Despite his reluctance to jump around too vigorously after what had happened last time, Dan managed to stay positive during the gig, but by the time they were on their way back to the hotel the desperation was starting to creep up on him again.

“The day’s nearly over,” he complained to Kyle, “and I have no idea if anything I’ve done is going to help. By this point I’m out of things to try.”

Kyle remained silent, and when Dan glanced over he saw him chewing on his lip.

“I just,” he continued on a sigh. “I just wish there were something more concrete I could do. I just want something different to happen.”

Kyle continued to walk in silence for a while, avoiding Dan’s eyes. It went on for long enough that Dan was surprised when he actually did speak up.

“Well, there’s one thing I’ve not bothered bringing up, but…” he trailed off.

“No, go on,” Dan urged when it seemed like he didn’t want to continue. They came to a standstill in the middle of the pavement.

“It’s just… didn’t Bill Murray end up fixing things by getting with that lady? The one he worked with, who he fancied.” Gesturing around them, Kyle raised an eyebrow at Dan. “We _are_ in the city of love, after all. Not a bad place to seal the deal if – if you’ve got your eye on someone.”

Dan looked at him uncertainly. “I’m – it’s just us and the crew who are out here.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said, “I know.”

Dan didn’t know what to say.

“Because if you did. Have your eye on someone, that is… the risk in telling them is pretty low, is all I’m saying. Either they feel the same, and your life is a romcom and you’re freed from the loop, or they don’t, and it never happened.”

“Yes, you’ve… you’ve said all this before.” Dan was keeping his mouth shut, though; he didn’t want a repeat of the other day.

Kyle laughed under his breath. “Of course I have. Did you avoid answering then, too?”

Well, he didn’t have to call him out on it. “Kyle–”

“The reason I’m so adamant about it,” Kyle pressed on, “is that I _really_ don’t think you’d be rejected… and earlier on, I think I figured something out – _maybe_ , I might be wrong – probably am – but I have to try.”

“You – you have an idea how to fix this?” Dan wondered, and Kyle nodded. “Then why didn’t you–!? No, just… whatever it is, do it. I don’t know if I can stand another day of this.”

Kyle took a breath. “I’ve been meaning to ask you… didn’t know how much it was going to matter, if tomorrow wasn’t going to happen, but if it might help, I was going to, uh.” Knotting his fingers together, he looked Dan in the eye. “I thought maybe we could spend the day together tomorrow, just the two of us. See the sights, all that touristy crap we both love. And. If you wanted.” He swallowed. “We… we could have said it was a date. Then, after we’d done all that, I was planning on asking you out. In – in a boyfriend-type way, properly.”

Dan gaped at him.

When he didn’t reply, Kyle went on to explain, “I only say this now because I thought, maybe – well. Surely, if I’d gotten around to asking you before, you would have had some idea what my intentions were, so you might be more open to _saying_ something about… us. Because you have to feel it too. But then you _wouldn’t_ , so I figured – hey, maybe something’s been stopping me from asking, and that could be the flag? The event flag, you kn–”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Dan suddenly said.

Kyle floundered. “I’m – I’m sorry? I know it was a bit self-centred to assume, but I just thought–”

“No, sorry, not that,” Dan interrupted him again. “Just – if all that’s true, then why didn’t you want to sleep with me?”

“Uh. Did I not? Wait – _when_?” Kyle stuck his hands into his pockets, jiggling some loose change. “I feel like I’d remember you propositioning me.”

Oh right. He ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it happened in another loop,” he confessed.

Kyle gestured for him to go on.

“Um.” Dan fidgeted. “I tried kissing you, once, just to see what it was like, but… I think you thought I meant it casually, when I really didn’t. But you approached me later for more, so I thought you were only interested in – and I _know_ I shouldn’t have if you wouldn’t remember, but we were heading to the room and then all of a sudden you just _stopped_ and started _freaking out_ about it, saying you couldn’t with – with me, of all people, and I didn’t–”

Kyle’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. The look on his face was pained and disbelieving. “I can’t believe this,” he said, like that wasn’t obvious.

His thumb brushed over Dan’s collarbone and Dan held his breath.

“If you’d only–” he sighed. Laughed, breathless. “Dan, I would never just casually sleep with you. That things got that far… shows that I might be tempted, but – no, I couldn’t do it.”

Dan breathed out. “But you _would_ want to, if we were, you know, doing it in a romantic way.”

“Well shit, Dan,” Kyle said, huffing out another laugh, “I’d want to at least see how tomorrow goes first!” But then he let his hand slide down from Dan’s shoulder to join with his. “Yeah, though, I would.”

Tomorrow.

Squeezing Kyle’s fingers in his, Dan sighed. “Do you really think this will have solved things, then?” he murmured.

“I mean, I hope so. This outcome–” Kyle raised their clasped hands and gestured between the two of them – “is pretty fucking ideal, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know how you could improve on it. Could always have a go at making me a romantic speech – just to really cover all your romcom bases.”

Dan cracked a smile, feeling a bit more hopeful. “So my life really is a romcom then?”

Kyle shrugged. “Don’t knock it! Better that than psychological horror, which was your other option.”

They joked back and forth as they started walking again and before they knew it they were outside the hotel, where they came to a stop. Dan stared up at the building he’d come to know over the past few days and hoped dearly that this would be the last time he’d have to go inside.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by Kyle clearing his throat. When he turned to look at him, he saw that Kyle was closer than he’d been a moment ago.

“Sooooo,” Kyle dragged the word out. “Have to say I’m a bit jealous of this past me you were talking about – the one who got to kiss you.”

Dan’s heart rate kicked up as Kyle drew slowly closer and soon they were just centimetres apart. Caught up in the moment as he was, he found himself leaning into Kyle as though pulled in by some gravitational field. He could feel the soft puffs of Kyle’s breath against his neck and his own breath hitched in his throat, eyes going half-lidded in response.

“Oh,” was all he could think to say as Kyle’s hands moved to frame his face.

There was a moment they just stood there, the yellow glow of the street lights reflected in Kyle’s eyes, before something settled in his expression. With a stroke of his thumbs against Dan’s cheekbones, he moved in for the kiss... but something about the look on his face brought back a sudden memory of that night in the hallway.

Dan turned his head to the side at the last moment, Kyle’s lips brushing against his cheek.

“No, don’t,” he breathed, hand coming up to his mouth to act as a barrier between them.

Kyle pulled back with a nod. His hands slid away from Dan’s face, resting instead on his shoulders. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, swallowing. “Got a bit ahead of myself.”

“It’s not that,” Dan hastened to assure him, “just – tomorrow, if this didn’t... I don’t want _this_ to be something else only I’ll remember.”

Nodding again, Kyle let his forehead rest against Dan’s. “Okay,” he agreed. He shut his eyes and breathed in, letting it out again in a long exhale. By the time he opened his eyes again, he seemed much more collected, and resolute. “Come on then. The sooner we sleep, the sooner it will be tomorrow.”

Dan felt a rush of fondness for him that carried him the rest of the way up  to their room

Settled in the bed across from Kyle’s a few minutes later, he reached his arm across the empty expanse between them. After a moment, he felt Kyle’s hand close around his own.

For the first time in a long time, he felt content.

 

* * *

 

“Dan, time to wake up!”

Groggily, Dan blinked his eyes open to see Kyle’s face grinning down at him. There was barely time for him to process the sharp pang of regret in his chest because of course, it hadn’t worked, how could he have ever thought that–

“It worked!” – and Kyle was shoving his phone unceremoniously into Dan’s face, the display glaringly bright in the dim morning light. Dan squinted, lifting a hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes – and _that_ was new.

Pulling himself up in the bed – the _hotel bed_ , not the tight confines of his bunk that had grown so much more oppressively familiar than it ever had been before – he glanced around and took in his surroundings. The sky outside the window was the same shade of grey he had grown used to, but it was framed by curtains rendered unfamiliar by the daylight he was finally seeing shine through them. The room, blessedly silent bar the faint hum of traffic from the road. Finally, his gaze came to rest on Kyle, perched on the side of his bed, hair ruffled from sleep and face indulgent as he watched Dan get his bearings.

Dan pushed past the rapidly swelling hope in his chest to reach a shaky hand towards Kyle’s outstretched phone and brought it closer to his face. Sure enough, the date read February 3rd, 2017, and the breath left his lungs in a rush of air that could probably be classed as a sob.

“Thank _fuck_ ,” he wheezed.

He was dimly aware of Kyle easing the phone from his grasp and setting it on the bedside table. When he was done, Dan all but collapsed into him, forehead dropping to rest on his shoulder as he tried to regulate his breathing. His fingers twitched uselessly and he bunched them in the blankets over his lap, and twisted them between his fingers when he felt Kyle’s arms come to wrap around him. It went a long way to soothing him; although the two of them had been spending the day together over and over again, right now he felt closer to Kyle than ever in their shared recollection of what had happened.

After a few minutes of shakily drawn breaths, Dan relinquished his hold on the blankets. He smoothed them out as Kyle ducked his head in an attempt to meet Dan’s eyes.

“Hey,” he said, and Dan glanced up at him. “It’s all alright now, yeah? You’re fine, we’re good?”

Dan nodded and Kyle sighed in relief. “I haven’t managed to sleep through the night before,” Dan told him, “and I was always waking up to the same fucking song.”

Kyle snorted out a laugh before quickly schooling his expression. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, “it’s just, that’s proper Groundhog Day, innit. Maybe we should have _I Got You Babe_ on the next mixtape – you can do Cher’s bit and we can get Woody to be your Sonny.”

“Worried he’s getting antsy without a solo of his own?” Dan smirked, remembering the stress dream Kyle had admitted to having. He snickered at the sudden widening of Kyle’s eyes.

“Well fuck,” Kyle complained, “if you know about that then who knows how much past me’s told you. I’m doomed!” He thunked his forehead against Dan’s and didn’t bother to move it away again.

Dan’s breath hitched when he saw Kyle’s eyes flick down to his lips, but when he looked back up without making any move to bring them closer together, Dan realised that it would be up to him to close the distance between them.

Sliding his hand up to grip at the back of Kyle’s neck, he pressed their foreheads more firmly together and tilted his head to the left, allowing his other hand to wrap around Kyle’s bicep. He stalled for a moment, heart hammering in his chest, before finally bridging the gap and pressing their lips together.

It was unlike anything he had experienced before; somehow, those impulsive kisses from the earlier loop felt like cheap imitations of the real thing in the face of the rawness he felt at the way Kyle inched closer, sighing morning breath into his mouth and gripping too tightly onto his shoulders. He was hypersensitive to all of it, the chill of the room at his back a stark contrast against the warmth of Kyle’s skin beneath his fingers, the sounds of the outside world drowned out by the huff of their mingling breaths. Everything else fell away around them.

When they broke apart, all they could do was look at each other for a moment. Dan felt a rush of belated delight when it occurred to him that yes, that had just happened, and yeah, this time he wouldn’t be alone in remembering it. A helpless smile took over his face to match the one that had formed on Kyle’s.

“I really do like you a _lot_ ,” Kyle gushed.

 

* * *

 

Later on, they were walking along the canal, joint hands swinging between them –

“All that _‘seize the day’_ crap on Twitter yesterday and now this,” Kyle had pointed out, “what are people going to think happened?”

– and Kyle was making a verbal list of all the things they’d have to do together to make up for Dan’s adventures alone.

“It was originally part of my plan that we would go to Disneyland,” he was saying, “but now I just don’t know if we’ll have the time, what with all the other things you say you’ve done. Hey, do you think–”

“Congratulations!”

Both of them stopped and turned to locate the source of the call, which rang out loudly in the still morning air. It came from a car stopped at the nearby traffic lights, and Dan did a double take as he recognised the fan he’d bumped into leaning out through the passenger side window. After a moment, he waved.

“I told you you could do it!” she continued, but any chance they might have had to reply was lost when the light turned green and the car sped off.

“The fuck?” Kyle asked, nonplussed. “You know her?”

Dan shrugged and waved a hand. “It’s just that fan we met. You don’t remember?”

Kyle returned the gesture, shaking his head. “Time loop?” he offered.

“Must be,” Dan agreed, and then stopped. It would make sense for Dan to recognise her after numerous encounters, but why would she say something like that if they hadn’t met this time around?

He thought back on their previous interactions but couldn’t quire put his finger on what was off about it. Maybe they’d met some time in the past, or maybe it was just the familiarity a fan naturally felt when confronted with someone they admired and felt like they knew. Yeah, that must have been it. It had to be.

In the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter, so they continued along their path as though the interruption had never happened.

“Speaking of which,” Kyle recalled, pulling out his phone, “people have been tweeting me lists of the top ten must dos in Paris, and I feel like we should cross at least a few of them off while we’re here – think I still have one of them open...”

Dan watched him click about, squinting against the scarce sunlight, and felt a rush of affection shoot through him. It would make a good picture, he thought.

He snapped one on the sly and admired his shot. This was the kind of thing he hadn’t been able to do when each day would reset, any photos he’d tried to take lost to the void along with everything else.

The whole experience had been hell for Dan, whatever brief thrill he might have gotten from it overshadowed by the building nausea and dread – he couldn’t deny that. But… standing here now, with Kyle in front of him, it was hard to regret any of it, not when things had ended up the way they had.

Dan put his phone away and nudged closer to Kyle, linking their arms. “Let’s have a look then. Ahh, I’ve been there… and there… _and_ there, too!”

“Alright!” Kyle put on an air of impatience. “If you’re such an expert, you show me all the best bits and we’ll forget the list!”

“That sounds fun,” Dan agreed. He dropped his weight onto Kyle for a step, knocking him off balance. “I’ll have a go at playing tour guide for you.”

Kyle shoved Dan away from him but his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Lucky me,” he said.

With Kyle’s arm coming to settle around his shoulders again and a new day stretching out ahead of them, it was a sentiment that Dan couldn’t help but agree with.


End file.
